In 18 days, the Socceroos have achieved what took them the previous 19 months – find 10 goalscorers.
Australia’s spread of scorers at the Asian Cup is even more remarkable given the past reliance on Tim Cahill.
Entering the cup, Cahill had scored eight of 12 goals in Ange Postecoglou’s dozen games as coach.
In the cup, 10 Socceroos have scored 12 goals, including three to Cahill – the only multiple scorer.
“We never really thought that it was about just Timmy scoring goals,” Postecoglou said.
“We knew if we played our style of football, we would get players in positions to score.”
And they have come from everywhere.
Defenders Trent Sainsbury and Jason Davidson scored in Tuesday night’s 2-0 semi-final against United Arab Emirates – their first goals for their country.
Midfielder Massimo Luongo has also logged his first goal for the Socceroos; evergreen Matt McKay and Mark Milligan have banked rare goals.
The Australians have scored more than any other nation – Japan is next best with eight.
To put the Socceroos’ scoring spree in context: before the cup, it took 19 months for them to find 10 different scorers, a stretch dating back to June 2013.
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Even though St.Pauli ultimately lost a high-scoring affair, Jackson Irvine was a standout, as well as scoring a late goal.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
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